I've chatted to TITG and it seems that there is no real place for random chit chat about new games, news, tech reports, festivals, etc etc. It doesn't matter what format you want to talk about just have at it!

What prompted me to think of having a random gaming thread was a post from a glib in Nintendo DS thread.

jrkerr wrote:friend code available

ff3giant killermaster black, white, red mage, freelancer, ranger, thief, bard, geomancer, black belt, etcyou can have the reward item before you master the jobif I send you a card.

castlevania portrait of ruinI have 99.7% of all items, so I can sell younew york steak, the 3 rare foods, etc which you'll need for lv 25 or lv 1 hard runswhere 9 of each potion just won't cut it.

Obviously I need to trade for similar and it requires somebodysmart enough to have stockpiled this stuff, set up a wifi connector,and discerned that the free server doesnt store shit so that we'dhave to co-ordinate being on at the same time.

jrkerrdog at hotmailcheers

Is this something that is happening in the world on online games? Are there places where you can 'sell' acquired items to other players. I think more in regards to MMORPG and the World of Warcraft. I can imagine that there would be sites dedicated to the selling of virtual goods to other players but I've never seen one. Could this become a few form of trading? My Lv. 96 Ballbuster Sword for Â£15? Is this an opportunity waiting to happen (if it is it was MY IDEA FIRST!!! )

Last edited by MonkeyM666 on Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:43 pm, edited 5 times in total.

I've heard of people selling virtual items on eBay - some people even claim to make a living out of it. I find it all a bit odd, but that's partly because I just don't have the time to devote to that kind of game....

I'll just to thrown an old post into here (that may spark more interest)... or not

MonkeyM666 wrote:Oh, haven't I posted about this?? Ok, I'll do it now since this is kinda a thread about network gaming.

Ok, I will but when I get home, god damn work firewall!

Basically in South Korea they've nearly finished building a custom made stadium for video games. Lan games in particular. With the countries pro gamers dressing like a F1 racer and having cheer squads and cheerleaders the industry needed a profitable large venue for these events.

I'll find the link and post it, it is a bit obscure though, so it may take a while for me to find.

Video game players score big money in South Korea

Seoul -- Choi Yeon-sung avoids going out most days, and when he's on the street, he puts his head down -- to dodge the whispers, the stares and the pleas for autographs.

Such are the hardships of a celebrity video game player in South Korea.

Choi has 90,000 members in his fan club. He pulls down $190,000 a year in salary and winnings combined, in a country where the average annual income is $16,291. At 23, the boyish-looking professional gamer has achieved a level of fame bestowed elsewhere on movie idols, soccer stars and Olympic champions.

Video game competitions draw hundreds of thousands of avid fans who watch on massive indoor screens, or on one of two game-only cable channels broadcasting 24 hours a day. An estimated 18 million South Koreans, more than one-third of the country's 48 million people, play video games online. That adds up to an $8.7 billion industry, with the government spending more than $100 million each year to promote, research and develop the market.

The pinnacle for professionals like Choi is the annual World Cyber Games, which was founded in South Korea in 2000. And this year Choi won a gold medal in the game he plays almost exclusively -- StarCraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment of Irvine.

The games, held in Monza, Italy, in October, saw 700 competitors from 70 countries, competing for $462,000 in cash and prizes. South Korea won the Grand Champion title followed by teams from Russia and Germany, with the U.S. tied for fourth.

What accounts for the success of pros like Choi?

"In Korea, many people study so much, spending 10 to 12 hours each day studying for the college entrance examination," said Kim Hyun Seok, chief executive of International Cyber Marketing in Seoul, which produces the World Cyber Games. "That's the kind of attitude they're accustomed to. So they can practice games for 12 hours a day."

What a life... he's what they look like.

Last edited by MonkeyM666 on Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

ThisIsTheGirl wrote:I've heard of people selling virtual items on eBay - some people even claim to make a living out of it. I find it all a bit odd, but that's partly because I just don't have the time to devote to that kind of game....

This is how ive read about how that works....These guys pay other people to play WoW and rake in all that cash. So they can just do raids all day, acquire items, and auction them. Then they can sell that gold on Ebay to people. They call it farming I think. Thats why the freaking economy on that game is so screwed up.

Just type in WoW, and you'll get like half the search results as gold haha. Im suprised they never crack down on that. Its a great way to make cash though. Thats why you go into the WoW forums and read up on what realms are overpriced and horrible.

Playing video games can satisfy deep psychological needs and, at least in the short term, improve people's well-being, new research shows.

The more a game fulfilled a player's sense of independence, achievement and connectedness to others, the more likely he or she was to keep playing, Dr. Scott Rigby of Immersyve, a Florida-based virtual environment think tank, and colleagues from the University of Rochester in New York found. And the more fully a player's needs were satisfied, the better he felt after playing.

"We think this is really one of the first validated models of what is going on psychologically when people are playing video games," Rigby told Reuters Health in an interview. To date, he noted, research on video games has focused on their potentially harmful effects, such as promoting social isolation, addiction, and violence.

While the findings don't prove that "video games are always good for you," Rigby noted, they do help to provide a more balanced understanding of people's motivations for playing them. "We're trying to in some sense normalize how people look at video games, rather than seeing them as having some mystical power to addict."

In four studies reported in the journal Motivation and Emotion, Rigby and his colleagues sought to understand people's motivation for playing the games and the games' immediate effect on well-being.

In the first study, they had 89 people play a simple game involving jumping to different platforms. In the second phase, the researchers compared the experience of 50 people who played two 3-D adventure games, one very popular and one less so. In the third study, 58 people tried four different games, while in the fourth the researchers surveyed 730 members of an online gaming community who were experienced in playing "massively multiplayer online" games.

Players' enjoyment of games depended on whether the games made them feel competent and independent, and, in the case of multiplayer games, connected to other players. Players who enjoyed their experience showed increases in well-being, self-esteem, and vitality after playing, while those whose needs weren't satisfied reported lowered vitality and mood.

"Video games we think have tremendous potential to impact people, particularly today's video games which are incredibly rich and complex," Rigby said. "This creates very fertile ground psychologically."

Mastering challenges in video games can be a healthy way of coping when opportunities for feeling independent or competent are scarce in the real world, he argued.

"Video games in some ways are very good at satisfying these psychological needs," Rigby noted. "Often times real life is not as clear...real life often can make you feel ineffective."

CASINO ROYALE The Consumer Electronics Show may be, to quote Stephen Colbert, a "high school science fair on crank," but it's nirvana for gadget geeks. Video games are just a small part of the gigantic trade show that takes place every January in Las Vegas, but there's always the promise of some good smack talk when Sony and Microsoft are both in the house. This time it was Bill Gates' crew throwing most of the punches.

Then Microsoft execs Peter Moore and Chris Satchell ganged up on Sony's online service in interviews with the GamesIndustry.biz Web site, with Satchell calling it a "disaster."

"It's going to take (Sony) a couple of years to get up to speed on this, and I'm not sure that they necessarily have the talent," Moore said.

Sony spokesman Dave Karraker fired back, telling GamePro, "I would argue that consumers worldwide ... have decided whether or not Sony has the DNA to deliver hardware, software and services to suit this industry."

So maybe CES isn't a science fair -- it's a schoolyard brawl.

GIVE ME YOUR DIGITS: Once CES wrapped, the industry analysts at the NPD Group stepped in to deliver some hard numbers on the next-generation console war. Let's look at the sales figures for December, the first full month in which all the new consoles were available:

Microsoft's Xbox 360 led with 1.1 million sold, followed by Nintendo's Wii (600,000 sold) and Sony's PlayStation 3 (490,000).

Of course, plenty more Wiis and PS3s could have been sold if the companies could have made more. All three consoles were outsold by Nintendo's portable DS (1.6 million) and the six-year-old PlayStation 2 (1.4 million). And Sony sold 950,000 PlayStation Portables.

For all of 2006, U.S. sales of software, hardware and accessories hit $12.5 billion, up 19 percent from the previous year. The year's best-selling game was EA Sports' "Madden NFL 07," followed by Nintendo's "New Super Mario Bros." and Microsoft's "Gears of War."

APPLE CHEEK:Despite all the CES hoopla, the gadget everyone was drooling over last week was introduced 600 miles away, at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Of course we're talking about the iPhone, Apple's music-playing, Internet-surfing cell phone. But does it play games? Not yet, but everyone who's seen the device's graphics and touchscreen technology seems to think games are inevitable.

Meanwhile, Microsoft vice president Peter Moore promised games for his company's Zune MP3 player within the next 18 months.

Here's hoping one of the companies can take cell-phone gaming beyond "Tetris" clones and solitaire card-playing. Right now, neither the iPhone nor the Zune looks like much competition for the DS; then again, no one's ruling out an iGame or an Xbox portable sometime in the future.

VANISHING ACT: In 2004, Microsoft commissioned an "alternate reality game" -- a contest incorporating Web sites, telephone calls and real-life events -- called "I Love Bees" to promote the release of "Halo 2." Now Microsoft is using the same type of campaign in advance of the release of its new computer operating system, Vista.

It's called "Vanishing Point," and its Web site includes dozens of very difficult puzzles as well as links to cities around the world, from Los Angeles to Berlin to Singapore. First prize is a ride to suborbital space -- "the ultimate vista," according to Microsoft. You can play along at vanishingpointgame.com.

NEW THIS WEEK: There's something new for just about everyone in stores this week.

Online role-playing addicts get "The Burning Crusade," the long-awaited expansion to Blizzard's hugely popular "World of Warcraft." Wii owners get Nintendo's "Wario Ware: Smooth Moves," another fast-paced collection of microgames. For DS players, there's Capcom's "Phoenix Wright, Attorney at Law: Justice for All," a fresh batch of cases for the dashing lawyer. And Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 gamers get "NCAA 07 March Madness," the latest edition of EA Sports' college basketball sim.

An interesting, but short article on the reliance of movies on the development of video games.

Inspired imitation This article over at The Escapist magazine details an interesting thought experiment:

"[W]e tried to work out the smallest number of films we'd have to remove from existence to destroy the game industry in its current state. With a short-list of six thrown into the void, the industry would be barely recognizable, full of designers stroking their chin and thinking, "You know, I know we have to drop our soldiers from an orbital vessel to the ground in some manner of ship, but God knows what we could use."

Their list of most-pillaged films includes Dawn of the Dead, Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars. But top spot goes to Aliens: "where the majority of developers go when their creative well runs dry...the billowing smoke and blue light that director James Cameron fills the corridors with are modern games' default atmosphere."

Great fun. But what about the other way? The Escapist's writer suggests that: "original bits of game culture integrated [into movies] go no further than the occasional first-person shot in a movie like Doom."

I think that's a bit pessimistic. I don't think the ultra-acrobatic fight sequences that grace every action movie today would be the same without the influence of classic fighting games like Street Fighter. They taught us to expect a slicker class of move. Do you agree? And can you think of any more examples?

I have to admit, Gears deserves it - it's one of the best online gaming experiences I've ever had.

Mind you, there is now a growing list of people who leave my flat saying that they intend to buy a Wii, and it is usually Wii Sports that inspires them. It'll be really interesting to see how the PS3 sells in Europe in a couple of weeks' time. 2008 should be a fantastic year for games on all consoles.

Hey everyone... this discussion caught my attention and I was wondering if anyone has played Flight Simulator X yet. The cover art promises "The World is ALIVE!" and shows herds of elephants and other animals roaming the African savannahs.

I haven't played it yet, but I've read some reviews that say you have to have a pretty tricked-out system to be able to even come CLOSE to what's on the box art (no surprise there).

I've used Flight Sim in its many versions over the years, but the latest I have is the v9, A Century of Flight.

Or cast spells like Harry Potter? Well, now they can, because the era of mind-controlled video games for the masses has arrived at this year's Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.

Behold Project Epoc, a wireless headset developed by Australian start-up Emotiv Systems. The electrodes embedded in the set read your brain waves, figure out what you're thinking and, yes, allow you to bend objects on the screen to your omnipotent will.

The software package that Emotiv will be releasing to developers includes three programs, each giving the user a slightly different flavour of mental control over what's happening on screen. In the "Expressiv" software, an onscreen avatar blinks when you blink, smiles when you smileâ€¦even winks back when you wink (without the aid of any cameras or optical input).

The "Affectiv" software is basically a graph that Emotiv's scientists tell me measures the user's general level of "excitement". During the demo I went to last Friday, the researchers encouraged me to ask rude questions of Dave (the user) to see if I could make the graph flinch.

Asking Dave how he felt about minorities, and whether he was attracted to men, seemed to excite him somewhatâ€¦

But I was there for the video games, and the kind folks at Emotiv delivered. Using a modified version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I navigated Harry through a level using a standard PS2 control pad. When I got to a place where I needed a spell, Dave took over, moving blocks and casting fireballs with his mind. Way to go, Dave!

Let's be clear, though: Epoc isn't anywhere near as easy as picking up a control pad and learning to play a game. The software uses adaptive learning to figure out what your brains' electrical signals look like when you're thinking about lifting, pushing, or rotating objects. That takes time (which is why Dave used the headset and not me).

Still, I think I'd be willing to sacrifice an hour of my life for a taste of the Jedi's power.

The effect is amazing, after all - c'mon, this is mind-control people! - but I find myself wondering whether the twelve different 'telekinetic' functions and ability to flirt with your avatar for a while will feel worth it a month or two after Epoc has left its $250 hole in your wallet.

Ultimately, I think it will. As Nam Do, Emotiv's CEO said, this type of thing can have all sorts of implications for how people interact with their computers. Social networks and massively-multiplayer environments could be transformed with real-time emotional input from its denizens.

If you took stab at drawing up the video game "canon," what 10 games would you start with? That was the question facing Stanford professor Henry Lowood, who curates the History of Science and Technology Collections at the school and has an abiding love for video games. Seeing that games are ephemeral (storage media goes bad, systems become obsolete), Lowood has been one of the people pressing to get the Library of Congress involved in game preservation. To that end, he announced the first 10 games of his proposed canon a few weeks ago at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco and urged that they be preserved first.

Related StoriesXBLA file size limit increase confirmed Former Shiny Entertainment boss forecasts long wait for PS3 to reach potential Yesterday: "The Wii is excrement!" Today: "The Wii is quite nice!" GDC director says game industry "is maturing" Games have gone mainstream enough that the New York Times covered the conference and Lowood's presentation in particular. The talk, called "Ten Games You Need to Play: The Digital Game Canon," featured Lowood along with designers Steve Meretzky and Warren Spector, Berkeley researcher Matteo Bittanti, and Christopher Grant, the editor of joystiq.com.

The first 10 titles they would like to see covered are:

Spacewar! Star Raiders Zork Tetris SimCity Super Mario Bros. 3 Civilization I/II Doom The Warcraft series Sensible World of Soccer Canon formation is rarely as simple as announcing a list, however. Although a canon can sometimes be imposed by an authority, this doesn't work for most disciplines, and certainly won't hold true for games. In fact, the most interesting result of Lowood's presentation may come years from now, when gamers of the future compared this list of influential titles with their own list.

Each generation modifies the canon of an art form to suit its own needs and aesthetic sensibilities, and even within generations, there is plenty of disagreement. In literature, one need look no further than the general disfavor shown towards the 18th century, especially toward "sentimental" works like The Man of Feeling, which used to be quite important. Or the rise of Donne and the Metaphysicals after long centuries of relative neglect.

The same process of canon formation will take place in the gaming community. It's possible to imagine a day in the future in which a game like SimCity won't be seen as a liberating title, but one which led gaming down into the dark alley of unwinnable "sandbox" games. Such arguments are all part of the fun, and lists like these often seem designed to provoke discussion as much as to lay down the law.

If gaming does become an art form that is studied by students across the nation, though, the gaming canon could quickly move from an object of spirited debate to a divisive partisan issue, as it has in other fields. That's because, suddenly, the list no longer exists purely for fun. It is used as the basis for course offerings; it determines what researchers will get jobs and grant money. Progressives are pitted against conservatives, proponents of gameplay against proponents of stunning visual effects. Bitter departmental fights break out and voting blocks form, and then some people wonder why only certain cultures seem represented in the course offerings, and then the very definition of "game" comes into the question.

For now, though, it's only a list. Let the argument over its contents begin.

World of Warcraft seems to be targeted all the time for this kind of thing. It reminds me of (even though it's on a different tangent) the virtual plague that ran rampant through the game late 2005.The infection was lethal, dying victims oozed contaminated blood through their skin and anyone coming into contact with it quickly succumbed.

It all began when a group of adventurers encountered a deadly virus while exploring a labyrinth of caves. When surviving infected explorers made it back to civilisation, they initiated the outbreak. Travellers spread the word, and the disease, only boosting the carnage and the outbreak to epidemic scale. In the busiest towns, bodies piled high.

I guess thatâ€™s what happens when you get 7.5 million users on one game. reminds me a whole lot of that South Park ep from last season..

The disease, named the "Blood Plague", was left in some deep Catacombs by the games designers. They had intended for the disease to remain within the caves, but some adventurers decided to 'piggy back' the Blood Plague out of the caves and into the virtual world. They used their virtual pets (you can buy these in the game) to help carry the disease out of the caves and take it to more populated areas, where the plague then spread out of control.

When the plague spread to the towns, they didn't know how to stop it. Even quarantine didn't work. In the end, to stem the epidemic, Blizzard had to take many areas of the game off-line (I like to think they nuked the areas )

Pretty funny really.. there are some scientists who want to study real epademics using the stats from the game. But unfortunatally Blizzard didn't keep any records. It's funny that you said that you liked that part of the game because they're thining of doing it again.

Apparently trendy people are getting in on the WoW action now. It was featured on Richard & Judy - a journalist from The Independent started playing it and opened up a virtual delicatessan. For some reason.

MonkeyM666 wrote:I'd love to get in on it but I just don't have the time or the graphical horsepower (I think). It'll end up being like GOW, I'll get my self sorted log on and everyone's moved on to CC4 or something.

Kaga, can you give us a sceen grab of your character? Tell us all about it, why is it so good?

Ah I ran that game on my POS comps. What do you have?

Cant help you with time though. I actually hit level 60 in 6 months, and quit the game shortly after. Reaching 60 is a buzzkill because theres nothing to do after that.

Yeah, yeah... the 360 is in the works (I've gone completly cold on the PS3 now). I have a feeling that I'll be going for a Wii first sonsidering that I'll be getting a nwe TV as well as the console.... maybe the 360 for christmas

I put this in the Xbox 360 thread, but I realized it will also be mutiplat, so for those that don't play the 360, here's a little news.

2K Games is developing All-Pro Football 2K8. It's still pretty secretive, but here's a little bit.
Supposedly, they are using the Natural Motion Euphoria engine used by GTA4, and the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game.

Supposedly, Take Two is using this tech for their secret All Pro Football 2K8. Madden killer? Quite possibly. I think NFL 2K5 is the best football game ever made, so with this tech added to the mix, I think they are onto something special.

Honestly, the thought of Otto Graham and Barry Sanders in the same backfield and Reggie White and Deacon Jones rushing the passer has my heart thumping. Or what about reteaming Montana and Rice, or Staubach and Pearson, or hundreds of other great combos. 2K might be on to something here.

PlayStation's creator to retire Friday, 27 April 2007, 09:45 GMT 10:45 UK The man behind the Sony PlayStation console is to retire, after the electronics giant sharply cut shipment targets for the PlayStation 3 (PS3). The "Father of the PlayStation", Ken Kutaragi, is stepping down as chief executive of Sony's computer entertainment division.

Sony's PS3 faced a string of setbacks which caused delays to its launch.

The system faces fierce competition from Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360 consoles.

Analysts said Mr Kutaragi's departure is an indication that Sony may not be satisfied with the initial success of the PS3.

Huge costs

Mr Kutaragi, 56, designed the original PlayStation, which was born out of his frustration from a cancelled deal for Sony to create a CD-Rom drive for Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES).

It went on to become a key source of revenue for the Japanese icon since its 1994 launch, selling more than 100 million units.

Mr Kutaragi designed the follow-up PlayStation 2 which has also sold more than 100 million units, and the PSP portable console, also seen as tremendous successes.

But he was demoted from Sony's board of directors in a 2005 and replaced as head of consumer electronics.

He also gave up the day-to-day running of the games unit last year, as Sony incurred huge costs due to the investment in the PS3, the console that is considered by analysts as vital to the company's future.

'Powerful visionary'

US sales of Sony's PS3 have trailed behind Nintendo's Wii

"I am happy to graduate from Sony Computer Entertainment after introducing four platforms to the PlayStation family," said Mr Kutaragi.

"It has been an exciting experience to change the world of computer entertainment by marrying cutting edge technologies with creative minds from all over the world."

Just because they seem so up their own ass I would love PS3 to fail miserably.

FACT: PS3 will be a success as predicted and it will be the most popular console across the age range of gamers. Froms chool age gamers to adults who like a race or a shoot-em up or a challenge are a hard day at work.

Yeah, that may be true to a point but it's going to take 3/4 years to get there... it's just too damned expensive and the technology isn't established enough yet (isn't the only blue-ray machine out at the moment that works properly the PS3??). In 3/4 years Nintendo will bring out expansion packs for the Wii making it HD or something; Microsoft will release more hard drives or ram or something; the PS3 will only just hit a reasonable price.

Wow... I just found this article showing 1st quarter '07 sales results for the US. on this page here

To summarise.... here's the graph from it

Data source: NPD Group

I knew that teh DS was kicking ass still... but by 200,000+ units!?!? wow....

Interesting to note that Microsoft only have one machine in the market. Nintendo and Sony have 2 or three each (I can't believe that the cube is still on the list!). Thatâ€™s a whole heap more money heaping up for the two old rivals. Will Microsoft release a portable xbox in the near future?

Thing is, in my town, i.e people I think about in this siutaions, they will buy whats cool. And a fucking PS3 is cool. So I see this muppets buying this consoles, not knowing anything other than its expensive! Expensive is good. Not becuase they are rich kids. But it makes them cool for having it.

These aren't nerd and geeks buying this, these are townies/.chavs/ your avaerage teenager

I used tow ork i a games/dvd shop and the most common people who spent the most money on multiple consoles and games etc were the Townies.

They sued to spend so much. They didn't knwo shit about it. I'd try and talk to them and they wouldn't have a fucking clue. It would be all 5th hand knowledge from mates and bad tabloid/web stories (unlike the classy webstories found on here)

I think geeks make up a small percentage of sales. So we're in the hands of everyone else.

silentbobafett wrote:FACT: PS3 will be a success as predicted and it will be the most popular console across the age range of gamers. Froms chool age gamers to adults who like a race or a shoot-em up or a challenge are a hard day at work.

It depends what you mean by "success" - it isn't gonna make Sony go bankrupt, that's for sure, but at the moment in the UK, where PS3 has only been out for a month, it is still being outsold by the Wii at a rate of about 2 to 1 - and this is almost 5 months after the Wii came out.

As for "most popular console across the age range of gamers" - I dunno why you called that a fact mate, but it's emphatically NOT a fact. The biggest age range is covered by the DS, followed by the Wii - PS3 doesn't even come close to attracting the over 40s and under 10s in the way that the DS has done - nor does PS2 for that matter.

As I've said elsewhere, the PS3 is gonna have some amazing games on it in a year or two, but by then it may be simply too late for it to compete with MS and Nintendo. I'll buy one when they've come down in price a bit, and when I'm sure that Blu-Ray is going to still be a relevant format in 5 years' time....

silentbobafett wrote:How on fucking sweet muther loving earth did 69 million people by a Gamecube in the first quarter of 07?

Um....69,000 mate

Last edited by ThisIsTheGirl on Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:41 am, edited 1 time in total.